A Response to “The Social Network”
To be completely transparent… I was dreading this assignment. I remember watching The Social Network shortly after it came out, and absolutely loathing every minute of it. I was too young to understand a majority of the plot, and the different lawsuits left me scratching my head until my scalp bled. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this time around, I quite enjoyed this movie.
Now let’s start with the basics. The movie obviously centers around Mark Zuckerberg, who is widely known as being the creator of Facebook.
Facebook was first a sexist tool used by the men of Harvard to rank how “attractive” a female individual was based off a terrible algorithm. This algorithm in particular was for Zuckerberg to hack the student directory in order to gain photos of the female students, to which he would essentially make these women go head to head with each other, and the user would pick which female was more attractive. Sick. Disgusting. Vile.
This idea eventually evolved into Facebook.
Facebook, in the most mundane of terms, paved the way for all of social media. It added a whole new topic to the internet for people to enjoy and gain social interaction with. Facebook is a MAJOR contributing factor to everything we know today.
Now on to some of my favorite scenes:
First of all, how could you not love Justin Timberlake saying, “I’m CEO, bitch!” I think his character really pushed Zuckerberg to understand his self-worth as an entrepreneur and gave him really good business advice, as Parker had the business experience in order to do so, as he was the creator of Napster.
This all comes full circle once Parker calls Zuckerberg in a panic due to a party that he and some interns were at, getting broken up by the police. Zuckerberg ultimately makes the decision to fire Parker, which pissed me off for two reasons. 1. It can be argued that Zuckerberg called the police on Parker and 2. You’re screwing over someone who helped you build your business…
This scene dramatically calls for Zuckerberg to turn his business card, which reads, as you guessed it, “I’m CEO, bitch.” I hope you feel sorry, Mark.
Speaking about people that Zuckerberg screwed over… let’s talk about Eduardo Saverin. Saverin was with Zuckerberg from the beginning, and while Zuckerberg moved to California to grow his business, Saverin was in New York trying to advertise in order to grow Facebook as well. Saverin decides to come to California, and not only does Zuckerberg not pick him up from the airport, but ends up firing him as well.
Saverin then decides to freeze all of the accounts (as he should’ve), to which this obviously pisses Zuckerberg off. During this scene, Saverin also is fighting with his girlfriend over “his facebook status being single,” to which she sets the scarf Saverin just gave her on fire and leaves.
My all time favorite scene is when Saverin comes to the Facebook office because of Zuckerbergs invitation, and it ultimately ends in Parker offering Saverin his investment money back. Saverin is not fond of this encounter and leaves by saying he is coming back for ALL of Facebook, as he is a Co-Founder of the company after all.
Overall, Mark Zuckerberg sucks. This movie taught me that some people really only care about their own financial wellbeing, and will take down even their best friends in order to get there. I mean… thanks for Facebook though.
